Campaigns

UN Small Arms Process

The final meeting of the Fifth Biennial Meeting of the States considered agenda item 10, the consideration of the Final Draft Document. Chairman Tanin introduced the oral revisions and editorial changes that would ensure the consistency of the document. Chairman Tanin asked the delegates for their consensus in the adoption of the Final Draft Document, and it was so decided. The floor was then opened for statements after the adoption.

The third meeting of the Fifth Biennial Meeting of States was called to order by moderator, Anthony Simpson, of New Zealand. This session debated on the implementation of ITI for states to identify and trace small arms and light weapons and their ammunitions in a timely manner as contained in document a/conf/192/bms/2004/1. Two brief presentations were made on the related topic as proposed by the chair.

The morning session was opened by the Deputy High Representative of Disarmament Affairs, Virginia Gamba. She recalled that while over the past years there have been major achievements, member states still faced daunting challenges and hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe were destroyed by guns. Illegal guns created crime, conflict, threatened international aid workers and impeded development.

In Israel, a newly proposed ‘Security Services Law’ threatens an existing, though un-enforced, clause of the Firearms Law that restricts security guards from taking their guns home. If the proposed law were implemented it would automatically allow security guards to take their guns home whilst off-duty.

IANSA Women all over the world are celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March, highlighting the campaign Disarm Domestic Violence, and calling for the inclusion of references to gender based violence in the Arms Trade Treaty.

On 7th November, members States of United Nations at the 67th session of UN General Assembly First committee, voted the Resolution L11 on the Arms Trade Treaty in New York at UN Headquarter. 157 voted in favour, 18 abstentions and Zero vote against. The Resolution mandates Conference on ATT to be held in March 2013. The ATT Resolution was initiated by a group of co-authors including Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, Kenya and United Kingdom.

Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence

This year’s Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence (16-22 June 2014) was timed to coincide with the Fifth UN Biennial Meeting of States on Small Arms (BMS5). IANSA member organizations celebrated the WOA in their home countries, and internationally at the BMS5, which was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Here is a sample of events during the Global Week of Action:

The final meeting of the Fifth Biennial Meeting of the States considered agenda item 10, the consideration of the Final Draft Document. Chairman Tanin introduced the oral revisions and editorial changes that would ensure the consistency of the document. Chairman Tanin asked the delegates for their consensus in the adoption of the Final Draft Document, and it was so decided. The floor was then opened for statements after the adoption.

The third meeting of the Fifth Biennial Meeting of States was called to order by moderator, Anthony Simpson, of New Zealand. This session debated on the implementation of ITI for states to identify and trace small arms and light weapons and their ammunitions in a timely manner as contained in document a/conf/192/bms/2004/1. Two brief presentations were made on the related topic as proposed by the chair.